Athena

Representations.

The oldest representations of Athene were the palladia. Originally the palladia were stones which were said to have fallen from the sky and to which protective power was attributed.* Later these stones were replaced by statues in wood (xoana) which had the same celestial origin. In them the goddess was depicted with her body sheathed in tight draperies, and in her hands she held a shield and spear. The most celebrated statue of the warrior Athene was that of the Parthenon, the work of Phidias. The goddess, standing, wore a long chiton; her head was helmeted, her breast covered with the aegis**, her right hand rested against a spear and in her left hand she held a winged victory. (Hamlyn, P. (1963). Greek Mythology. 1st ed. London: Westbook House)

* Palladia is the plural of Palladium, which as stated in the description above, is a statue of Athena but also anything believed to protect, which I believed was the main reasoning behind why Athena was often referred to as Pallas, however according the quote below, this is not quite the case….

‘But the ancient Greek myths are messy, so there’s more to Pallas than meets the eye. According to Pseudo-Apollodorus’ Bibliotheca (3.12.3), Athena had a childhood friend, a girl called Pallas. They were both raised in the arts of war. At some point, they had a falling out and came to blows. Fearful for the fate of his favourite child, Zeus interfered and distracted Pallas, who was struck down by Athena. Immediately, Athena was overcome by grief and made a wooden statue in Pallas’ likeness, the Palladium, which was later kept at Troy.’

There are so many different versions of the myths which all tells different stories of how Athena was given this name, Pallas also means a large asteroid which is similar to the meaning of palladia. I find it so interesting how there is so much lexis which is constantly referred to and is able to almost lose it’s original meaning due to stories changing so much.

I found it to be very interesting how even today, these beliefs that the Palladia stones had fallen from the sky, are still relevant in studies even today, this helps me realize more just how much of an impact Greek mythology has had on on a number of different subjects and how it is still all around even in this day and age.

**

The bronze Athena Promachos was the first of Phidias’ monuments dedicated to Athena and one of his earliest works. It was completed in 456 BCE and stood on the Athenian Acropolis for all to see as the largest statue yet erected. Phidias completed the Lemnian Athena between 451-448 BCE. The massive chryselephantine cult statue, Athena Parthenos, was made out of gold and ivory and measured 12 meters in height. The goddess was depicted as standing, wearing a tunic, aegis, and a helmet and holding a Nike in her right hand and a spear in her left. By her side was a ornamented spear and serpent. She was completed in 438 BCE. Phidias’ other colossal chryselephantine statue of Zeus was completed in 430 BCE. It was considered by ancient scholars to have been Phidias’ masterpiece and fittingly so, as it was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Unlike Phidias’ Athena, Zeus was sculpted seated on a throne. He held a Nike in his right hand and a scepter in his left hand. The statue was 13 meters tall and filled the height of the temple.

To the left is, as described above, Phidias’ representation of Athena, which has the ‘tight draperies, and in her hands she held a shield and spear.’ and the ‘aegis’ as stated in the extract from Paul Hamlyn’s Greek Mythology book.

The Aegis - ‘Besides her armour, Athena was always depicted with an AEGIS . No one is quite agreed as to precisely what an aegis looked like. It is sometimes described as an animal skin (originally goat: aiga is a word for ‘goat’ in Greek), though pelts of lion or leopard can later be seen in sculpture and ceramic representations. Zeus’s aegis is generally held to have been a shield, perhaps covered with goatskin and often showing the face of a Gorgon.’ (Fry, S. Mythos,)

I have really struggled to figure out what an Aegis is, however, from my research, it is often represented as a shield with a gorgon’s head on it, and usually with Medusa’s head for Athena. I found it really interesting that both Athena and Zeus were described to have an aegis.